Darren Boykins sits with his mother, Carmella Bowers, during a prison visit, not long after he was convicted for the 1981 murder of Milton Laufer in Newark. (Dana DiFilippo | New Jersey Monitor)
Darren Boykins has been in prison for 45 years despite being eligible for parole for nearly half that time — and despite his steadfast claim that he did not commit the 1981 murder that landed him behind bars.
Tuesday, he learned he’ll finally be free, after outgoing Gov. Phil Murphy commuted his sentence six weeks before his next parole eligibility date.
Boykins was one of 148 people Murphy granted clemency to on Tuesday morning in his final hours in office before the inauguration of New Jersey’s new governor, Mikie Sherrill.
Gov. Murphy vetoes immigrant protection bills, angering activists
His lawyer, John Crayton, has fought since 2024 to exonerate him and applauded the commutation while also vowing to continue his fight to prove Boykins was wrongfully convicted.
“This is not a happy ending. It’s just the next step. And it’s probably, hopefully, a much better place for Darren,” Crayton said. “I am determined to get the state of New Jersey to admit to their injustice 45 years ago. This should never have happened to him.”
Boykins was 19 when he was arrested in the May 22, 1981, slaying of carpet salesman Milton Laufer. He always insisted he was innocent and had an alibi the day of the murder. Investigators never found a murder weapon, and two witnesses repeatedly could not identify him as the killer. But jurors convicted him largely on the word of a jailhouse informant who later recanted.
Crayton found that authorities failed to divulge exculpatory evidence that could have cleared Boykins of suspicion and organized a photo lineup 39 days after the homicide that Crayton contends was improper. They also covered up or dismissed evidence that could have freed Boykins from jail in his post-conviction appeals and parole bids, Crayton said in a November court petition.
Boykins is now 64 and under psychiatric care at the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton. He’s expected to be released in the coming days to a program for parolees run by Volunteers of America Delaware Valley.
“I’m worried that he’s going to be in a place that he’s unfamiliar with, and he’ll be afraid,” Crayton said. “In any event, he’s going to be out of prison, and that’s a good thing. He’ll get to see his mother and brother and sisters, and that’s a good thing. He will be moving in a better direction for himself and for his family.”
With Tuesday’s clemencies, Murphy has pardoned or shortened the prison or parole sentences of 455 people in seven rounds of clemency actions since December 2024 — the most of all New Jersey governors combined over the past three decades.
Murphy said, though, that his clemency initiative “was never about numbers — it was about people.”
“Each pardon and commutation represents a story of accountability, growth, and redemption,” he said in a statement. “From the outset, we have been guided by a fundamental belief that mercy and fairness are essential to a system that truly serves everyone. By offering second chances to individuals who have demonstrated rehabilitation and a commitment to their communities, we have strengthened not only individual lives, but our entire state.”
More than 4,500 people have applied for clemency consideration since Murphy created a clemency advisory board in June 2024 to review their cases and recommend candidates for commutations and pardons.
Murphy and the board expedited applications from people convicted of non-violent offenses, domestic violence survivors whose offenses were connected to their victimization, and cases involving excessive trial penalties (where people got lengthier sentences at trial than what they were offered to plead guilty pre-trial). The approach was meant to make “fairness and not favor” the barometer for who gets clemency, they have said.
Still, several of the 97 pardons and 51 commutations announced Tuesday raised eyebrows, given the political connections of those awarded pardons or commutations.
They included Harris Jacobs, 28, an Atlantic City man accused of a fatal 2022 hit-and-run that left a pedestrian dead. Jacobs’ attorney told BreakingAC that he learned of his pardon even before jurors convicted him on Tuesday. Jacobs’ father, Joe Jacobs, is an attorney active in Democratic politics in Atlantic City.
Also pardoned was former Assemblyman Al Coutinho, an Essex County Democrat who was sentenced to three years of probation in 2013 after admitting he took money intended for his family’s charitable foundation.
Another clemency recipient was Mordechai Berkowitz, 24, of Lakewood, who prosecutors said had been speeding with a blood-alcohol content nearly twice the legal limit when he crashed into another car in 2022, killing a woman and seriously injuring another. A judge sentenced Berkowitz in December to six years in prison under the state No Early Release Act, but Murphy on Tuesday commuted his sentence so that he’ll be freed early in 2028 and on parole for three years afterward. His attorney is Lee Vartan, a former federal prosecutor whom Murphy in 2022 considered to become attorney general. Vartan also was second in command of New Jersey’s attorney general’s office during the Christie administration.
Others granted clemency are sure to stir controversy.
Joseph Grieco, a former Tenafly cop, had been sentenced last year to 11 years behind bars for fatally shooting his husband, John Kelly, a former New York City cop, in 2023 after a night of drinking. Murphy commuted his sentence, so that Grieco will be freed in 2029 and serve three years on parole after.
Michael Sica was president of a police union when he was sentenced to seven years for official misconduct, conspiracy, and related charges stemming from a cover-up prosecutors said he coordinated after Union County Jail guards beat immigrants detained there in 1995.
Other clemency recipients had convictions for offenses ranging from shoplifting and drug crimes that have since been decriminalized to murder and other felonies. Many had served lengthy prison and parole sentences.
Edwin “Chino” Ortiz and his brother Carmelo Ortiz were among those pardoned. The siblings were released from prison in 2016 after serving 30 years for a fatal robbery. In 2021, they founded the Newark-based Returning Citizens Support Group to help other people better reintegrate after leaving prison.
Since then, Chino Ortiz has become an advocate for better reentry policies, testifying for prison reforms at the Statehouse and calling for voting and jury service rights to be restored for people with criminal convictions.
Clemency removes reentry hurdles, such as employers and landlords denying people jobs and housing because of their past mistakes, he said.
“Many men and women that are coming home from incarceration are still facing discrimination because of their criminal background,” Chino Ortiz said. “It’s not fair for me and other people who have convictions not to be seen as every other citizen, especially after paying my debt to society and living productively. I can’t find the words to express how it feels to be given a second chance. It’s just really a great feeling.”
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
